Thursday, 28 July 2016

I wasn't sure about Deja Vu dolls to begin with, but since buying this girl and trying different wigs on her, I'm enchanted. And she's lovely to sew for!

(Note to self: I must not buy any more dolls...)

So here's my debut Deja Vu pattern, my girl is looking lovely in her own version of the Ellowyne 'Gypsy' dress. I have a glamorous even gown in mind for her, to make soon, but for the moment, I'm happy to sit gazing at her, all dolled up in this little ensemble.

Etsy will charge EU customers VAT (This does not affect America or other non-EU countries). I always recommend people to look in my Craftsy store anyway, as the prices fluctuate, due to the international exchange rates. I always suggest comparing prices.

If you wish to buy directly from me, I can supply a PayPal invoice and email the pattern to you within 24 hours. Usually it will be faster than that, I'm just allowing for the potential differences in time zones.

Her hands do need to be removed to put on the armlets, but I find DV's hands so much easier to remove than Ell's. And all those ruffles! I do love me some ruffles.You can see two looks on the pattern cover above. It looks just as nice with the armlets and no ruffle, or the ruffle with no armlets - and this ruffle can also be pushed up onto the shoulders to create straps (below)

And I've included the usual petticoat. This could be made as a skirt, and the bodice part of the dress could be made as a top, for separates. I may sew it up in that way, to see how it looks.The shoulder ruffle on a top would look great with pants or jeans.Here's the petticoat.

I've used Spoonflower's retired cotton lawn for this outfit, in my own prints. You can't get the lawn any more, but if you want to design a print and buy it in the Spoonflower basic combed cotton, that's quite a lightweight fabric, and should work well for this dress.

Recently, my housemate took me shopping to fabric shops... for an agoraphobic (me) that's a huge deal, but I was tempted out of the house by promises of fabric. I was actually out of the house for two hours. Which may not sound impressive, but it's as much as I could cope with.

Anyway, the point of all this rambling is that my housemate is awesome. We tell her so frequently. We were looking at the sewing pattern catalogues in one of the shops, and she asked the man what happened to their out of date catalogues. He said they just got sent to the recycling bins, so she asked if we could have their old ones. He went off to have a look, and came back with two big fat catalogues. He was very nice and let us have them for nothing. So we have all these patterns to look through, for inspiration, and I've been inspired by the kiddies section, for more Patience outfits.

I think I'll be doing one of those next.

It's worrying as a designer when sometimes you think you only have a finite number of ideas, but now... I have so many ideas in my head for sewing patterns, I'll never have time to create them all!

Sunday, 17 July 2016

Coming up next... Finally, I've sat down to make something for Tonner's Deja Vu. :)

Not telling what it is yet.

Sekrit.

But the fabrics are my own design, printed by Spoonflower, and in their beautiful - but sadly retired - cotton lawn. Ah well. I bought a stack of the stuff before their stocks ran out, so at least I have stash to keep me going.

If anyone is having trouble downloading, I can email it to you. I'll also be attempting to put this in some of my groups on Facebook. As it's a free pattern, please do share and enjoy.

It's a very easy little frock. I sewed mine by hand, and once I excluded the time it took to photograph each step, (and coffee breaks, heh) it only took me approximately an hour and a half. So if you're good with a sewing machine or serger, you'll whizz through it.

I am not, alas. I suck at using sewing machines.

It fastens at the back of the neck with a simple snaps, and has a pretty ruffle at the hem. You can always just turn up a 5mm hem, if you don't want a ruffle.

It would look so cute with some bloomers or leggings.

That's it! I'm happy to offer something free to the doll community. Everyone has been very kind to me, I appreciate it more than I can say, so actions speak louder than words.

Friday, 15 July 2016

Yes, yes, it's way too early for Halloween, but I wanted to make something suitable this year, and I've published this for sale early for two reasons. One - the under-dress makes a charming evening gown on its own. In fact the whole ensemble can be worn without the hat for a medieval feel. Two - I LOVE IT SO MUCH I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER.

There, now I've got that out of my system, let's move on. My little darling is a white wytch, but you can safely use all kinds of spooky blacks, purples and reds, because everything is lined - even the gloves - so no danger of staining.

Etsy will charge EU customers VAT (This does not affect America or other non-EU countries). I always recommend people to look in my Craftsy store anyway, as the prices fluctuate, due to the international exchange rates. I always suggest comparing prices.

If you wish to buy directly from me, I can supply a PayPal invoice and email the pattern to you within 24 hours. Usually it will be faster than that, I'm just allowing for the potential differences in time zones.

I'm loving this skirted corset. it could probably go over a whole host of different dresses.

And the gloves are wrapped with a simple cord. But it looks so good and in-keeping with the ensemble.

The hat though is the pièce de résistance, The crowning glory. She looks so dashing, I want one for myself!

And here's what the under-dress looks like without the corset. It's a lovely dress for your dolly, even without all the other bits and pieces.

So that's that for now. I still have Deja Vu dolls on my mind, but too many ideas for Ellowyne. It will happen. Really.

Saturday, 2 July 2016

My toiles are horribly unprofessional. I never use nice new muslin, I always use scraps of of quilters-weight fabric. It uses up scraps, and if I use different colours for each pattern piece, I can get a better idea of how well my seams work. Sorta.

Anyway, I've sewn the first draft of the Princess-seamed bodice. I pin these to the doll inside out, to check for fit. If I need to tweak seams, I can adjust accordingly with pins and fabric markers.

First draft - front:

And the back:

If all looks well, I give the seams a press and pin it to the doll the right-side out:

Front:

And back... this is the best time to ensure your back closes correctly.

And because I'm me. I put aside the princess seamed bodice, because it wasn't working with what i had in mind, and drafted a new one for my current project.

Front:

And back. The back closure is looking a bit lumpy here, but that's fine, I just need to smooth it down and adjust the closure a bit.

Now I need to sew it in cotton lawn, and line it. Add a skirt. And somne other stuff, which is a sekrit, until it's done. :)

In other news - Watching Wimbledon on my 'pooter. The Djokovic v Querrey game OMG. Novak is in trouble here. I'm actually missing the first bit of the Murray game to see it, it's so exciting!